Event: Inside the Iranian Nuclear Crisis
Seyed Hossein Mousavian, who served as Iran’s nuclear spokesman and a member of the Iranian nuclear negotiating team from 2003 to 2005, will discuss his new book providing an insider account of Tehran’s nuclear policy and negotiations with the international community. George Perkovich will moderate. Tuesday, June 5, 9:00 to 10:00 a.m. Register to attend.

One image from May 25 showed signs that "ground-scraping activities" had taken place at the Parchin facility as well as the presence of bulldozers, according to diplomats who attended a closed-door briefing by UN nuclear agency officials.

This will probably strengthen Western suspicions that Iran is "sanitizing" the site of any incriminating evidence before possibly allowing inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) into the complex.

"They clearly think they have something to hide," one Western envoy said.

The Parchin complex is at the centre of Western suspicions that Iran has been developing a nuclear weapons capability despite Tehran's repeated denials of any such ambition. Last week, the IAEA said in a report issued to member states that satellite images showed "extensive activities" at the facility southeast of Tehran - in what diplomats said was an allusion to suspected cleaning there. Full Article

A massive, highly sophisticated piece of malware has been newly found infecting systems in Iran and elsewhere and is believed to be part of a well-coordinated, ongoing, state-run cyber-espionage operation. The malware, discovered by Russia-based anti-virus firm Kaspersky Lab, is an espionage toolkit that has been infecting targeted systems in Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Sudan, the West Bank and other places in the Middle East and North Africa for at least two years. Dubbed "Flame" by Kaspersky, the malicious code dwarfs Stuxnet -- the groundbreaking infrastructure-sabotaging malware that is believed to have wreaked havoc on Iran's nuclear program in 2009 and 2010. Full Article

North Korea identifies itself as a nuclear power in its revised constitution, according to a copy displayed on the country's official web portal. The constitution was revised at last month's meeting of the rubber-stamp Supreme People's Assembly, and the preface details the accomplishments of former leader Kim Jong-il, claiming he changed the North into a "nuclear power and invincible military superpower." Full Article

NATO is hopeful of reaching a deal with Russia on missile defense despite opposition from the Kremlin to the alliance's plans for a missile shield, Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Thursday. However a conference in Moscow also on Thursday led to no agreement on the issue, with Russia using computer modeling to show how it believed the shield could threaten its security. Full Article

A Chinese government-sponsored academy has advised increasing the country's installed capacity of nuclear power generation to 60-70 gigawatts (gW) by 2020, local media reported Thursday. The elite Chinese Academy of Engineering suggests the government add 30 gW of newly installed capacity by 2020 on top of the 2015 total, which is expected to reach 40 gW, the Beijing-based China Securities News said, quoting unnamed sources. Full Article

Pakistan on Thursday successfully tested the indigenously developed Hatf-VIII cruise missile. The nuclear-capable missile, with a range of over 350 kilometres, enables Pakistan to achieve strategic standoff capability on land and at sea. The cruise missile with stealth capabilities is a low altitude, terrain hugging missile with high maneuverability and can deliver nuclear and conventional warheads with complete accuracy. Full Article